What are the best "interests" to list on resume?

Reading and travel are ubiquitous. If you say 18th century British literature, or travel in South America, yes, it's a little pretentious, but at least not so boilerplate. Everyone likes reading and traveling. If you bother to list it, needs a catch. I've seen hip hop dance on guys' resumes multiple times - I love asking about that - been surprised with some very cool answers. An instrument is great, anything a bit unique. I've seen Chinese Zither - no shame in that Ok, we can make jokes about the Interests section, yet it's the bottom of the resume. People read it - they like to ask about it. A resume is intended to spark a 2-way conversation. Anything that might catch an interviewer's interest that you speak to with enthusiasm/excitement/passion that shows your personality and creates a CONNECTION is great. No, classical piano is not going to get you hired. But for someone who loves it to ask you your favorite composer, and you both love Chopin, it's something in common that sticks in that interviewer's mind. It's also about "do I want to work with this person?"

I once had a kid put "flying drones" on his resume - our entire group cracked up reading the resume - until we spoke to him. It became a fun and engaging piece of the conversation that gave an insight into the personality. He ranked well in our review. Sometimes many candidates in a large interview pool run together - anything memorable in a positive way is helpful.

Maybe for Jane Street but what about IB?

"Intern in IB-M&A" On a serious note, any impressive or unique hobbies that you have (ie. running marathons, riding unicycles, BMX'ing, famous tik tok influencer, etc.) are actually kind of helpful to make you a more attractive candidate. I had one of them on my resume, and over half of my interviewers would ask me about it. They just make you a more interesting person.

Honestly, I don't even think it's a bad thing to start a new hobby just because you think it's going to look cool on your resume. I'm all for people bettering themselves and trying new things. Worst case scenario, you find out you don't like it, feel like a massive tool for about 5 minutes, and you stop doing it. Best case scenario, you find something you are passionate about, you make a whole bunch of new friends, your life becomes more fun, and you become a more interesting person.

That being said, DO NOT list something on your interests if it's not something you have an actual interest in. If you list "NBA", expect people to bring it up. Some people will be very passionate about it. If one of them starts talking to you about it, and you just go "uhhh", you're going to look like a fucking idiot. Huge, huge red flag.

Pls don’t list tik tok influencer

I wouldn't think that's interesting rather that they just lucked out and came from a wealthy family